Hi Maggie and welcome. I'm looking forward to seeing your profile so I can understand more about your kids. I have two and a half autistic kids out of 4. It's the easiest way to describe it - easy child 2/difficult child 2 is borderline Aspie, her older brother is a definite Aspie and her little brother is moderate on the autism scale.
difficult child 3, my fully autistic one, failed his first IQ test. It's the only way to describe it. They told me he was "borderline" (borderline what? I asked, they refused to say the word 'retarded'). I've also found that trying to assess my older son - very difficult. They do tend to under-assess.
difficult child 3 has since tested as in the superior range. Definitely not retarded. But because his language development was severely delayed, and the IQ test was given verbally, he simply didn't have the language skills at the time of testing, to be able to demonstrate what he could do. Also some test, such as mazes, require good hand skills and he's hopeless with that. But he can solve mazes really well, on the computer. A lot of these tests are very subjective - one person will mark a kid as 'fail' if his pencil mark so much as touches the line he shouldn't cross, even where its clear the child simply is unco, and didn't intend to draw a line there. Others will interpret more broadly, based on what they perceive the child intended. This variation makes these tests fairly useless as a general guide to ability.
We were given a pessimistic prognosis for difficult child 3. It's been proved wrong, thoroughly. We just don't know what he can do, he keeps finding more ways to do things he shouldn't be able to understand.
He'll never be 'normal' but he will find his place, I'm certain. We've discovered he has an amazing brain in there.
Welcome to the board, I look forward to getting to know you and your family.
Marg